Tuesday, 30 August 2016

Borodino 2.0

After the trip to Russia it was high time for a Borodino refight, I took command of the russians and my father the imperials. The main difference from the previous refight was that after going there I realized that there wasn't any waterloo style ridge but the place was quite flat, so the only height I have put is the one at the grand redoubt.

Below Utitsa woods and village, over them the Shevardino redoubt & village and the flèches to the left, over the Kolocha river, grand redoubt and village of Semenovskaya to end with the villages of Borodino and Gorki on top.

View of the newly made redoubts.

Flèches with lots of guns

Great redoubt with position battery

Russian reserve

Kutuzov & Smolensk's Virgin

Village of Borodino

Frenchies before Borodino, Eugene's corps

Davout's corps around Shevardino

Poniatowsky's poles on the imperial right flank

Great battery

And Murat's cavalry reserve

I took the chance to wear for the first time a T-shirt I bought in Russia.

The battle began and the guns on the flèches made the french battery limber up covering the advance of the cuirassiers.

The russian cav advanced on the right

The redoubt's guns also made limber their counterparts

Eugène quickly launched his infantry on the isolated garrison

While the french reserve also moved there

The infantry amassed before Utitsa and pushed forwards

The guns kept covering the advance of the cuirassiers

Since the french were pushing to my right I reinforced it with the guard

The french took Borodino from where I retreated

And began opening fire

The imperial guard garrisoned Shevardino

While the poles kept moving slowly in the Utitsa wood

I then assaulted Borodino with two units

I took the guns out of one flèche and moved them towards Shevardino

Face off in the wood

Barclay de Toilly got killed in the Bordino assault and some french infantry that assaulted my flank got repulsed and retreated so a good death.

But the village passed into russian hands

I moved an infantry unit towards Shevardino

While charging the poles with my cuirassiers, mauled by musketry

Then a deady crossfire began upon Shevardino

The infantry squared up but the french chasseurs charged regardless, obviously they were repulsed

Uvarov got himself killed while the cuirassiers struggled with the poles

The other pole unit charged my grenadiers

Another french unit that had been marching all day under cannon fire was finally routed by the garrison's volley.

The poles finally routed

And even Poniatowsky was killed!

Davout got wounded in the grenadier fight but the russians were put to flight retreating near Utitsa